Recycle Old Mobiles: No-hassle way to maximise the cash Discussion Area

MSE_Archna · 8 July 2008 at 8:19PM

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imagia · 9 July 2008 at 11:31AM

Excellent article - as always, very well researched.

I'd have to say that I am going to stop using Envirofone now. The prices in comparison to Mazuma have gone down quite a bit. Processing too has been pretty slow in my experience.

Mazuma has great prices, and their service is second to none. I sent a phone to them recently, which they received on a Tuesday. I got my cheque back on Saturday (the same week!), and even that was sent second class!

Twisted_Jester · 9 July 2008 at 7:18PM

I checked out the sites and thought I should point out that if you're an ebay user you could potentially get much more money for your phone by selling it on ebay.

The highest price I could get for a Nokia N93 was £51 from these sites and they currently sell on average for over £100 on ebay.

The one I'm selling on there now is fully boxed, completely refurbished via insurance so no scratches anywhere and has all the original packaged equipment so I'd expect to get a price at the higher end of the scale but obviously recycling companies are unable to take these things into consideration as it would not be cost effective for them to give individual prices.

There are always people looking for phones on ebay and all the ones I saw seem to go for a good price although there is always a chance it could sell for less, but mines only been listed for 2 days and I already have 26 people watching it.

So especially if you have a high end phone but even if not, I'd say spend a bit of time watching ebay for people selling your model and see how much they go for on average, it may be worth your while.

It's also worth noting that if you have a contract phone some of the companies are now offering substantial buy back rewards for your old phone, I don't know whether they do any similar offers for pay as you go but I recently upgraded my partners phone through Orange and got £150 buyback credit spread over the term of the contract and so lowering the overall monthly cost by nearly 40%

ladybug2008 · 9 July 2008 at 7:38PM

I was selling my phone to mobile2cash, which was a really good phone and worth a fair bit. They sent me the envelope and I popped the phone in and took it to my post office and gained proof of delivery.

A few weeks later I contacted them to see what was happening, and they said that my phone didnt arrive in the post. I didnt get the money, even though I had obtained proof of postage.

I wasn't very happy with this experience - I might as well of put the mobile in the bin!
x

mobilejunkie · 9 July 2008 at 11:58PM

Proof of postage is worthless. I sent mine SD and had no problems at all with them, netting over £100 for one phone I got free anyway. No way would I have risked not sending SD for anything worth that much.

zowoods · 10 July 2008 at 9:21AM

In the past when got free upgrades have sold these on ebay, first time no issues, genuine and paying buyer.

However 2nd time doing it for my sister and got dodgy buyers 3 times costing alot of time to sort this out and get the fees back from ebay this was even though had stopped new ebayers and the like from being able to bid, in the end sister kept phone.

Just be prepared with high value stuff on ebay it has more potential to be an issue I had a mixed approach and would try it again but at the time it was such a huge hassle.
zoe

imagia · 10 July 2008 at 10:51AM

mobilejunkie wrote: »

Proof of postage is worthless. I sent mine SD and had no problems at all with them, netting over £100 for one phone I got free anyway. No way would I have risked not sending SD for anything worth that much.

Proof of postage is not worthless. I sent a fairly low value (less than £36) phone to TalkGreener, but it never arrived. I sent the proof of postage along with the compensation form and the letter saying how much I'd get for the phone, and a few weeks later had a cheque from RM for the full amount.

monstercop · 10 July 2008 at 11:15AM

The other thing to consider when recycling old phones, especially when they are the PDA / technical ones is to make sure that you wipe the phone's memory before you get rid. You don't want texts, diary entries, or contacts being obtained bt less scrupulous individuals... By all means make the most of the phones without these features, but for the ones at the higher end of the market, be careful...

mobilejunkie · 10 July 2008 at 4:21PM

Anyone thinking Royal Mail will caugh up more than the minimum when something isn't sent SD is in for a nasty surprise. Follow whichever advice you want to bet on!

pink_lily84 · 10 July 2008 at 4:50PM

zowoods wrote: »

In the past when got free upgrades have sold these on ebay, first time no issues, genuine and paying buyer.

However 2nd time doing it for my sister and got dodgy buyers 3 times costing alot of time to sort this out and get the fees back from ebay this was even though had stopped new ebayers and the like from being able to bid, in the end sister kept phone.

Just be prepared with high value stuff on ebay it has more potential to be an issue I had a mixed approach and would try it again but at the time it was such a huge hassle.
zoe

just a quick note to say i also attempted to sell a brand new upgrade phone on ebay... worth approximately £200, somebody bought it for £1000! this happened twice and its such an inconvenience to sort out all the fees etc, never mind having to take pictures to list it etc.

my advice to anyone with a brand new phone is to sell it on amazon. No photos needed, just find the same item and click on 'sell one like this', you get better money for it on amazon from my experience but you do seem to pay slightly higher fees etc.

another thing to note with amazon is that unless you have a phone thats in really good condition they dont seem to sell as well. i have a nokia on amazon currently >> condition used-good and it hasnt sold as yet (two months since listing it)

for the hassle it really isnt worth buying on ebay... amazon all the way!!

babylon_5 · 14 July 2008 at 6:52PM

Tesco also recycle mobile phones and you get a gift voucher as well as clubcard points. I am recycling my Nokia 6131 and with Tesco's I will get £10 voucher as well as 300 clubcard points. This beats Mopay who will pay £6.50 or £7 in M&S vouchers.

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